Freak injury while asleep forces Murray to withdraw

ANDY Murray’s attempt to continue his winning streak at the Swiss Indoors in Basel was thwarted yesterday when he was forced to withdraw due to a freak injury thought to have been sustained in his sleep.

The world No 3 was looking to build on the momentum gained by winning three consecutive tournaments in Asia recently but a right gluteal strain meant he had to pull out of the ATP 500 event shortly before his first-round match against Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

It is a stroke of bad luck for the Scot as he enters a crucial period towards the end of the season with the Paris Masters next week followed by the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, and he was understandably in low spirits as he tried to describe the nature of the injury to his backside.

“I practised all of Monday followed by some physical training in the evening and I felt absolutely perfect,” said Murray. “But then I woke up on Tuesday morning and I was really struggling to walk. It is something to do with the sciatic nerve and they think I did it in my sleep. Maybe I was sleeping in a bad position.

“I am going to go to Paris today but I definitely need to take a few days off. I haven’t done enough in the past couple of days to do any more damage to it.

“I just wanted to try and keep the momentum from Asia going here if I could. Obviously not being able to play has stopped that process a little bit. But hopefully I will be OK for Paris and I will try and keep going there.”

As world No 4 Roger Federer is defending the title he won in his home city last year, the Swiss cannot gain any more ranking points this week so Murray is safe in the No 3 position for now. The 24-year-old is hoping to secure the year-end No 3 ranking for the first time and he will be keen to avoid another withdrawal next week.

His brother Jamie will suffer an immediate rankings blow, however. The pair were scheduled to play in the doubles this week in an attempt to retain the 500 ranking points they earned for winning in Valencia this time last year.

Jamie will now see his ranking fall around 15 places from his current position of No 24 and it means further woe for Andy who is always keen to see his brother do well. “For me, it’s a difficult position to be in because you feel like you have let the tournament down and I also feel like I have let my brother down a little bit,” he said. “So it is always a little bit tough mentally but unfortunately this happens sometimes and you need to look after your body as much as you can.”

After winning the St Petersburg Open last week, Linlithgow’s Colin Fleming and partner Ross Hutchins will aim to continue their run of good form in Basel today when they take on the Swiss wild card pairing of Stephane Bohli and Marco Chiudinelli in the first-round.